Glowing – and growing – with pride

//Glowing – and growing – with pride

On Allure of the Seas last week, Captain Hernan Zini made much of the fact that his vessel will claim the title of biggest cruise ship in the world – by all of 5 mm or three-tenths of an inch – from older sister Oasis.
His boss, Royal Caribbean’s chairman Richard Fain, has measurements on his mind as well, although in this case, he is referring to the crew rather than the ship.
As the vessel is being prepared for her first sea trials this weekend, arrangements are being made to transport thousands of crew members to Finland by charter flights from Miami. Most of them are transferring from other ships in the fleet, but they will have intensive training during Allure’s transatlantic crossing.
In his latest blog entry, Richard writes: “Allure has more features and amenities than any normal ship, but that means that she needs more effort to service those facilities and to make sure they come to life.
“How do we make sure of that? First, we are fortunate to have a large pool of passionate, experienced team members who have learned how to make every guest feel special. Then we train them on the unique requirements of this vessel.
“Lastly, we try to make sure they realise the qualities of this ship and what it takes to run her. We have intense orientation sessions, a dedicated website, even a puzzle book to educate and motivate them.
“The result of all this is that we have the best crew on the best ship. These people are so raring to go that I swear they all grow two inches when they come on board.”
I hope the quartermaster – if there is such a creature on Allure – takes this into account when measuring the crew for their new uniforms.

By | 2017-06-15T16:00:22+00:00 8 September 2010|Cruise News|1 Comment

About the Author:

John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.

One Comment

  1. Cruises Fan 8 September 2010 at 2:56 pm - Reply

    I am glad RCI are adament on providing great training for their staff. It is usually the service you receive on cruise ships that can make or break a holiday. Although if they are so proud of their it would be nice for them to be rewarded rather then having to rely on gratuities.

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